Friday 6 April 2007

Flocks of Seagulls

....although, that's an Angler Fish, we spotted this in the window of one of the little galleries on Granville Island as we were coming home last night. I had recently seen Angler Fish in the Vancouver Aquarium, so my eye was caught. Ouch.

Ben for some reason, envies my bed-head hair, apparently it's just the thing an emerging rock star needs. Since I'm not one, its splendour is somewhat lost on me, to me it resembles Eraserhead's hair, a reference which is lost on Ben who for some reason has never watched the cult classic.
Ben's own bed-head hair, on the other hand, is too 'Flock of Seagulls' to boast about. Clearly we get the bed-head hair we deserve.

But there is another flock of seagulls that haunt me, and they ARE quite haunting. When I take Laurence to work very early in the morning, just past where I drop him there are always seagulls wheeling very low in the sky. So in the pre-dawn gloom, these large white birds suddenly appear and flap around like ghosts in front of the car. I have no idea why they always appear at this particular place, there are several fast-food restaurants along that stretch that would seem more appropriate places for scavenger birds to hang out, but no, they fly between a Chinese store or office block called 'Hon's' and Pet City. A mystery for the inventive.

When we were watching Bones last night, I noted, as I have done before that there is a warning that comes on first,
'This episode may contain graphic forensic content,' which I would think is pretty much one of the reasons people watch a show about forensics. A more reasonable warning might be,
'Sorry, but tonight's episode may be light on the graphic forensic content because we are concentrating on the latent relationship between Bones and Booth,' or some such.

I was very pleased to see that Little Mosque on the Prairie has been screened in Hollywood with a view to being picked up by US networks. There seems to be some discussion about whether they will make their own version of it - no good usually comes of this, e.g. the Fake Office - or whether they will buy as is. This would be the better option, I know my own Americans would love it.

In spite of his teenagerish habit of wearing his trousers hanging round his bum somewhere - which in itself calls for a very careful underwear selection, if you're going to show it to the world, it must be cool, and let's be realistic about this, that's where Marky-Mark started - Ben at sixteen still clearly comes across as being over 25. Last night in the Keg, when the guy took our drinks order, he asked for a beer and yet again, no mention was made of his age.

I'm still excited about my family coming over in the summer, Austen will be spending his birthday here, and we figure it might well be the third birthday he will have spent in Canada. I feel that Canada, or maybe our bit of Canada is very much more child-friendly than Britain. This week at work, one of the people who has been in assisting me has two children the same ages as Holly and Teddy. Instead of everyone complaining about them being there as would happen in the UK, no-one batted an eyelid, they just became part of what was going on.

10 comments:

Sleepy said...

I think we should all send photos of our Bedhead Styles and let Ben judge which is the most 'Rock and Roll'.

I arose with hair that was particularly Ace Venturer-ish today.

Schneewittchen said...

Hahahaha :)) I think that's a great idea! Does Ace Venturer beat Eraserhead? 'Course, AV has the advantage of Ben knowing what it looks like. Bet I can find a pic of Eraserhead somewhere tho :)

Anonymous said...

K, I do not get "Little Mosque on the Prairie" at all. It just seems to be forcefed down our throats by the CBC and suddenly it's a "sensation". It's just so, so, so CANADIAN. Maybe you need to have grownup with a regular diet of Wayne and Shuster and Air Farce to get it, but that's not a compliment to the show.

The American Office, on the other hand, I think, is great. I watched the first episode just to see how bad it could be. And I thought, you know, it's not bad. The guy who plays the Tim character could try to make his character his own but the others do a fine job. I don't think you can really compare it to the English version - it's quite different - but on its own merits, it's a decent, funny show, especially for an American sitcom.

There's a long tradition of the US stealing UK's tv ideas. All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Three's Company (and both spin-offs), the list goes on and on. And reality tv? I think that's your country's fault, isn't it, Janis?

LentenStuffe said...

Fearsome looking piece of mechanics, ghostily evocative of Dr. Strangelove ... or something.

That gull thing is weird. We went hiking to Ballycotton strand recently and a sieve of gulls kept ghosting our advance, wheeling about, screeching, their shadows thrown on the pathway around us. I've written a couple of poems about it. Maybe sleepy's right, maybe the end is indeed nigh!

Great post!

Sleepy said...

In Portsmouth seagulls are referred to as "Dockyard Chickens", especially by my Dad, who has some horrendous stories about them!

Schneewittchen said...

Well, I like LHotP, ooh, that sounds good too. It's funny and the characters are very well drawn and already developing.

I believe we are responsible for reality TV, again, something which was only moderately shite when it left our shores.....plus it was always possible to ignore Big Brother, hell they even had a channel which was mostly dedicated to it when it was on, so ignore that and you can be blissfully unaware of the whole thing.

The interesting copy-cat prog is Queer as Folk. The US version was nowhere near as good as the original, but Kevin pointed out to me that in order to sustain it over several series it had to be watered down. So on that level I accept it as entertainment.

Thanks Lenten, and I was interested in your seagull experience too. You're right, it's almost like they're trying to tell us something, although they somehow seem more hectic and less smart that crows, so they're prolly just saying,
'Oi, when's someone making a movie about us?'

Sleepy, I swear that Pompey gulls just are some different strain. And for all I know, there could well be some establishments down Albert Road who are actually serving the little buggers as dodgy chicken.

Sleepy said...

Kentucky Fried Ken's, most likely!

LentenStuffe said...

They were so insistent my daughter even made a joke about them:

"Why do seagulls fly over the sea?"

"I dunno."

"Because if they flew over the bay we'd have to call them bagels."

Schneewittchen said...

Haha, I must admit I never was brave enough to eat food from Ken's :)

Lenten - that's very funny ! How old is your daughter to come up with that? (Crosses fingers that the answer isn't '18')

LentenStuffe said...

Maggie is 8!